Estonia Summons Russian Ambassador After Attempt to Justify Occupation
On July 23, Estonia’s Foreign Minister summoned the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Estonia Aleksandr Petrov in connection with recent statements seeking to portray the occupation of Estonia and its annexation to the Soviet Union as legitimate.
The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Tallinn had published a series of posts on its social media channels falsifying history.
On July 22, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation released a statement attempting to depict the June coup and the events that followed as voluntary, failing to mention the repressions that took place throughout the period of occupation.
Pompeo, Baltic Ministers Condemn Russia’s Attempts to Rewrite History
On the 80th anniversary of the Welles Declaration, the foreign ministers of the United States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania issued a joint statement reaffirming their opposition to Russia’s attempts to rewrite history. In a joint statement the three Baltic foreign ministers and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned Russia’s actions.
“We stand firmly against any attempts by Russia to rewrite history in order to justify the 1940 occupation and annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union.
The Welles Declaration shows that already in 1940 the free world recognized the Soviet action for what it was – an illegal act of forceful annexation,” the statement read.
80 Years Since the Deportation of President Päts
July 30, 2020 marks 80 years since Soviet occupation authorities took the first president of the Republic of Estonia, Konstantin Päts, along with his family from their Kloostrimetsa farm to Russia.
President Päts died in Siberia in 1956. A recent competition was held to pick a design for a memorial sculpture of Estonia’s first president.
The statue will be situated next to the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn.
Estonia’s First Designer Power Mast Erected near Risti
Electricity grid distributor Elering has put up Estonia’s first designer electricty transmission tower, named “Soorebane” (Swamp Fox).
The mast is located at the intersection of the Ääsmäe-Haapsalu and Risti-Virtsu highways in western Estonia.
A design competition was announced in March 2016 to find a suitable design for one of the corner poles of the high-voltage line in the Kuistlema bog area.
A total of 18 entries were received for the first competition of its kind in Estonia, including from Austria, Denmark and the U.K.
The winning architects are Sille Pihlak and Siim Tuksam from Part OÜ.
